


A Video and Some Thoughts

by TheRookBook



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Angela and Nyla are Gs, Post-Kidnapping, Pre-Relationship, Tim's thoughts, tim watches a video
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26150407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRookBook/pseuds/TheRookBook
Summary: Tim watches the video of Lucy in the barrel and has some thoughts about it.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	A Video and Some Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Aye yo! Thanks for reading! Special thanks to stydiea on Tumblr for letting me write this idea! I saw the post and the idea hit me, there was no way I could let it! Thank you for reading! All comments and kudos are appreciated! Let me know what you think!   
> Not beta'd. 
> 
> *I do not own the show nor the characters in this fic* 
> 
> I'm on Tumblr (@therookiebook)!!

Darkness blanketed the room. The only light coming from the large TV screen hanging on the wall. His eyes hurt from how long he had been staring at the screen. He had already been glued to the hard plastic chair for well over five hours and he was not even halfway done. He would get to the end of the video only to rewind it and start again. He was punishing himself. He deserved it.  
  
He was the reason that she had been in that barrel. He was the reason that she almost died. Nothing she could ever say would change his mind. If only he would have opened his eyes past the jealousy that flared inside him at the thought that Caleb was genuinely interested in Lucy, and saw that he was a serial killer, he could have stopped it. He should have stopped it. He was a cop. He was inches from the guy and did not see it. His vision was clouded because of her.  
  
He was responsible for her. He was supposed to keep her safe. Lucy trusted him and he pusher her right to him. Lucy, the best rookie he has ever trained, knew better. She knew that something was wrong with the guy, but she took his advice anyway. She went out to drinks with the guy because he told her to. He would give anything to go back and tell her to just go home like she wanted.  
  
Tim blinked looking away from the screen trying to add some moisture to his eyes. He was afraid that if he looked away for too long then she would really be gone and he was still reliving that day over and over again. He grabbed the remote and started the video over again. His heart pounding in his chest like it was the first time he was watched, not the twelfth.  
  
She was so scared when the bastard closed the lid, sealing her fate. He could see it in her eyes. All the hope that was there fleeing in milliseconds. It was not the normal, hotshot, confidence that she portrays, it was fear and it ate at him every time he saw it.  
  
Then she was tumbling until the barrel landed in the ground. She tried to pull the zip-ties off her wrist but to no avail. Her cries never failing to send a cold streak down his spine. Then she stopped, looking up at the sound of the dirt covering the metal barrel. The fear still bleeding from her face.  
  
She tried again to bang against the metal side, but there was nowhere to go. She was stuck in a barrel. Buried alive. It was the first time that he saw Lucy Chen cry. He wondered if at that moment she knew that he was coming, that he would not stop until he found her. He decided then he never wanted to see her cry again.  
  
He did not know how she did it. She somehow broke the zip-ties from her hands, continuing to fight when anyone else would have just given up. Her hands were hitting against the metal again, trying to get out. The sounds breaking him down even more each time he watched it. She was trying desperately to get out, trying so hard to save herself. The coughs startled him at first. She was running out of air. Running out of time. Running out of hope. He wondered if she blamed him in that moment as she pressed her back against the metal. He wanted to know if her last thought of him was going to be full of spite.  
  
Her soft voice wafted through the speakers as she started to sing. He had heard her sing a few times in the shop as she sang lowly to herself. He had never heard her sing this one. This one was raw. This one was the last hope that they would find her, whether that be months or minutes later. That they would remember her for who she was and not what happened to her. She was sweating. She was starting to fade, and he prayed that she knew they were coming, that he was coming for her.  
  
Then she stopped. Her voice fading as her head leaned back and she was gone. He could not see her chest moving. He wanted to yell. He wanted to yell at her and tell her to hold on, that she was not a quitter, not to give up, to keep fighting. He was coming. He was almost there.  
  
Silence filled the room as he watched her unconscious form on the screen. It was that moment that he realized how close they were to losing her. How close he was to losing her. His eyes filled with tears again, just like they did every other time. He knew how it ended, but still, he could not look away. Then he heard the sound of something against the metal again. The muffled sound of his voice piercing through the barrel. He wondered if she had heard him if she knew he was there somehow. He could still feel the dirt underneath his fingernails from where he dug and clawed trying to get to her as quickly as possible.  
  
Sunlight flooded the screen. A brief second of his face flashed across the screen before the lid was thrown away. He did not know until the first time he watched it, but the camera had landed where it captured the moments after he pulled her out.  
  
He was bent over her trying desperately to fill her lungs with air again, trying to bring her back. His hands pumped her chest, trying his damnedest to save her. He noticed everyone looking around, looking at him like they had already lost her. Like there was no chance she was coming back, but he did not want to give up. He would not have unless someone forcibly pulled him away from, even then he would fight.  
  
Then she gasped as air flooded her lungs. Life returning because it was not her time to go. Did he gasp? Was that the sound that followed? Her cries filled his ears again. He remembered the scolding heat of her skin as he held her against his body. How he whispered that he had her, that it was going to be okay, that she was going to be okay.  
His back stayed towards the camera as he sat on his knees holding her close until the helicopter landed, and they loaded her up, taking her to safety. He stayed down on his knees long after they eased her out of his arms. His head hung down looking at the ground. He knows about the tears that slipped from his eyes and landed in the dirt below him. They had gotten Lucy. He had gotten lucky.  
  
When the camera moved and an officer picked it up, Tim reached for the remote to start over, again. He was punishing himself for what he did to her. He was not the one that put her in that barrel, but he was the one the pushed her towards Caleb. She had just been released from the hospital, she was alive. Nothing she could say could make him change his mind. It was his fault. He was responsible for her. She trusted him to keep her safe. He deserved this.   
  
His eyes snapped to the door as it was pushed open to see Angela and Nyla slip inside. They locked eyes and he wondered if they could see the pain and heartache that he was carrying. He looked away first refocusing on the screen. He saw them walk closer out of his peripherals sitting on either side of him before they too started watching the video.  
  
“What are you doing,” he asked after a brief silence.  
  
“Just hanging out with you,” Harper said keeping her attention focused on the screen.  
  
“I appreciate the thought, but I’d rather be alone.”  
  
“Too bad.”  
  
Tim swallowed slowly. “I’m not going to talk about it,” he said trying to get them to go away even though he knew they wouldn’t until he was walking out with them.  
  
“We know, but we’re going to be here if you change your mind,” Lopez said looking over at him. Tim looked her way. They were a family. They were there for each other, in the dark or light, and if they were wanted or not. They were there for each other through it all.

**Author's Note:**

> **Did you catch that callback to season 1??**  
> Thanks again for reading!


End file.
